What is Elance?

If you’ve heard of Elance but you’re just not sure what it is – allow me to explain. Elance is an online marketplace where freelancers can find jobs to do and those in need of projects can find freelancers to handle those jobs. Elance welcomes freelance writers, website designers, programmers, legal professionals, proofreaders, researchers and more.

It works like this – businessmen or women, or website owners who need projects completed will login to the site and post their project details as well as the amount they hope to pay for the work. Freelancers will then have the opportunity to submit competitive proposals on that project. They’ll submit their proposals based on their experience and what they feel needs to be done in order to complete the project to the project creator’s specifications. The project creator will then look over the proposals and select one that he or she feels would serve their needs best.

The project creators can pay the freelancer before the project begins, or place their money in escrow. Escrow is sort of like an account that holds the freelancer’s money until the project creator is happy with the work that has been done. If he or she wants changes to be made, they can ask for them before the payment is released, and then when they’re happy with the work they can release the escrow payment. It will be transferred into the freelance writer’s account. The freelancer can then withdraw it to their personal bank account, PayPal account or utilize the Elance debit card to access their money.

There is a feedback system in place on Elance that allows project creators and freelancers to rate each other on the transaction that took place – based on professionalism, quality of work, speed of work, and communication. This allows future clients or freelancers to see how satisfied the past clients were before agreeing to work together. Elance is a great place to work and can really help freelancers find the jobs they need.